I hear a lot of discussion about games being an art form, and that it can impact us emotionally. I couldn't agree more on this topic. A few diamonds in the rough like The Walking Dead: The Game and The Last of Us have taken grip on our emotions and allow us to drink the marrow of pure storytelling. A question I recently asked myself was what draws out the emotion in a visual story; the image, or the words?

Images

An image holds a thousand words they say. This saying couldn't be more true. Pictures show us two things; Environments, and expressions. To keep this blog short and sweet, I'm only going to touch on the environment side of pictures. The image of an environment isn't just color and a work of art, it is a statement. This statement can mean several things. It can vary from a war torn city that cry's as it's inhabitance dies brutally, or a forest burning that screams for a drip of water. These images lead back to the staying of, "An image holds a thousand words". These cities and forests can tell us stories of their past, express tales of the wicked and righteous. Images express the history of people, which in some cases is a gift of unseen beauty. Environments with a violent history, a dark past, or a glorious present can makes us look upon our own lives, and how the places we see with our eyes are metaphors of our own lives.

Words

Lives are sustained by one thing. Words. Words are the reason we decide to breath. A string of words is our way a conversation, expression, and a way of grieving. Conversation is the main point I'll use when discussing words. Weather it's a flirt, or a simple talk with a friend, words are the way we express our needs and wants. The needs and wants can be physical, or they can be emotional. Human beings always react with emotion when they hear the needs or wants of others. When we see a fictional, or real character need something physically like food or water, we feel the emotion stir inside us as sympathy takes over. Most times though the sympathy comes when we see the emotional need of another. We have the, "been there done that" rolling through our minds. These conversations of one character to another, emitting needs and wants through tongue, makes us begin to not only understand the character, but we begin to fall in love the person, fictional or not. This is because we will feel like we are not the only person going through a physical or emotional situations. A simple sentence can tell someones story, and like images, this is an unseen beauty.

One chance to save the world. Pretty deep if you ask me. Video games these days make deep moral decisions not as impacting as they should be. We will make a choice, and if it is the wrong choice, we simple press the restart button. This is where this viral internet title shines.

20 Minutes of Intensity

The internet sensation One Chance starts out with a black screen with the words, "In six days, every single living cell on Planet Earth will be dead. You have once chance." You are John Pilgrim, an average doctor whose research team has discovered the cure of cancer. The next day, you realize that the cure is "beyond deadly", and that it will rapidly begin to kill living cells around this poisonous gas. What makes this game unique is definetly not its' pixel 2D graphics, or One Chance's side scrolling gameplay. What makes this game intriguing is the way the story plays out. Each experience is different. Some people might choose to go to work to try to cure the disease, or stay at home with their family the final days of Earth. Others might decide to hook up with a co-worker, or stay loyal to their wives (whom depending on the way you play could commit suicide!). That is what I loved about the game. Every persons experience is unique, and there is no retries. The creators went out of their way to make sure you could replay the game. You are forced to go to a different website. Your decisions matter in this game, and they affect the ending on huge scales. And because of this, One Chance makes an intense experience that takes simple mechanics and relies on a compelling story that is all up to the choices of the gamer. Also, did I mention that the music of this game amplifies the dark tones and themes? Well, it does .

Final Score

One Chance - You honestly can't give this game a "score". Every experience is different for every person, and the score could be biased possibly because of the way I connected with the story and characters. So screw the score. Go Google One Chance, and enjoy yourself twenty minutes of intense story telling!

Choices affect people. Choices affect groups of people. Choices affect the world. Choices affect the way we play video games. I haven't done a stand-alone blog in a while, and I realized it has been because of lack of inspiration from the outside world. Then only moments ago it dawned on me (with certain events in my life that had made me come to this realization) that not only do our choices affect ourselves, our choices affect others as well. But our choices and voices have shaped something beautifully entertaining yet economical at the same time. Industries. In in our case, the video game industry.

Wants & Needs

Needs? Well we need money, clothes, a nice home, a spouse that we love dearly, a job to provide, etc. We go through out our lives collecting these needs, all at the same time needing more. Our our eyes beg, and want something that we can have a one-way relationship with a thing that cannot respond arrogantly, or with a negative tone of voice, just something that can't respond at all, but only continue the intimacy that it feeds to us. For some of us, we find this intimacy in stories... or fictional people who aren't existent in this world, but who we can relate to. We share these moments of connection with our friends in a round of Fifa, or maybe it's something more personal than a soccer goal, and we think about the themes that life provide because a game has forced that theme into our head. We share these moments of reliability with others or with ourselves because we have a deep connection. That connection is there because of a choice we made. We chose to pick up that game off the shelf because somewhere inside we saw ourselves in a character, or maybe a memory flooded back from a cut scene that won't get out of our minds. And because of this very choice, we begin our journey with ourselves searching for stories and fictional people who can give us that moment of intimacy. This strives us to search for works of art called video games that we can connect with because we CHOOSE the CONNECTIONS. We find some trailer, or screenshot, or gameplay walkthrough, and we decide that tells our story in a new font, and we choose to experience the adventure of deeper meaning. And for some of us, maybe that inspires us to make connections for others. Maybe because of that one time we sat there in front of a screen and found something buried deep inside ourselves, we want others to experience the intimacy of making a connection by choice as well. And that ripple affect all started off with that little kid in front of his television, and because of his choice to make connecting moments, a business spawn of a people group who all share the same passion.

Hey gamers, long time no see! Social activities completely chewed out the month of June for me, so blogs were impossible to publish during the later time of the month. But I'm back to bring you guys another Vita La Vita!

Why inFAMOUS Vita is needed.

For a long time on Podcast Beyond (the best podcast ever!), Greg Miller, one of IGN's Playstation editors, has been saying the an inFAMOUS game on PS Vita would be huge.

1: Big Franchise

Ever since the launch of the inFAMOUS franchise on Playstation 3, the series has become a must have for a Playstation owner. They have been exceptional games that rely on excellent gameplay, along with a story involving your choices. PS3, and PS4 have gotten their own share of different Conduits. Now where is Vita's? I think if the series was brought to the Playstation, we could see lots of different spin-offs for the game that would look beautiful on Sony's handheld.

2: 1st Party, AAA Title

Ever since the launch of the PS Vita, Sony promised us console quality games on a handheld, which they have failed to deliver us. The Vita has had its bright moments though. From Uncharted Golden Abyss (My Score - 6.9), Killzone Mercenary (Haven't Reviewed), etc. Though these big franchises making their way to Vita has mostly been done through ports minus the exceptions I stated above. This not only makes the Vita look weak, but Sony as a company. It shows that they Sony isn't willing to show the Vita the support to get good games, even if it means going back on their promises they made a few years ago.

Hey gamers, Somos here! E3 wrapped up this week, and we had a ton of games announced. But over the past few months, I have been hearing people discuss why they will be waiting to get a PS4. Today, I am telling you guys why NOW is the time.

Games

We have a plethora of games heading our way on Sony's current generation console (do you know how good it feels to call PS4 "this gen"?). A lot of people were holding off on buying the new Playstation, mainly because they were waiting for some great games to be announced before they picked up the console. After this years E3, gamers everywhere are rejoicing as they see and logos of their favorite franchises getting sequels. I think that is also a main selling point for the PS4 this upcoming year. Sequels. A lot of best-sellers on PS3 are getting their sequels on the Playstation 4. More specifically, Uncharted 4, Little Big Planet 3, and inFAMOUS First Light. These games were some of the reasons PS3 was a big deal last generation of consoles (again, so cool to say PS4 is this gen!). Now, with Uncharted 4, not only are Playstation fans aware of the excellence of Naughty Dog productions, but if you are a gamer you are aware. On any gaming magazine of website you see Uncharted and The Last of Us scoring 10/10, so this game has lots of hype. Also inFAMOUS Second Son was an excellent game, so if you are wanting to continue the story of the conduits, you have two games to play on your PS4. Also Little Big Planet is a joy to play on any platform. With goofy characters and enjoyable map design, all ages can adore this game. I think if this game does well, it will open the gate to a younger demographic that PS4's Knack failed to open. So if games were what you are waiting for, I think the wait has come to an end.

Bundles

If price is a concern for you getting a Playstation 4, Sony has announced a couple bundles that could strike some interest. They have one that is official, and one leaked. One is the PS4 Destiny Bundle, which comes with a white PS4, white Dualshock 4, Destiny, and 30 days of PS+ (and yes, WHITE!). The other is a PS4 and PS Vita Bundle, which is rumored to include inFAMOUS Second Son. In my opinion, I believe Sony will release more bundles with the upcoming titles and since of their popularity. Also maybe in the future, we will see a price drop, which will be followed by sales.

So are you guys intending to buy a PS4 if you haven't already, or are you waiting to see if this Nathan Drake is all he says to be?